


Fragments of Time

by Shadow_Wolf75



Category: Mighty Max
Genre: Gen, OCs - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-27
Updated: 2017-06-27
Packaged: 2018-11-19 15:32:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 3,460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11316336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadow_Wolf75/pseuds/Shadow_Wolf75
Summary: Eh, call this a dumping ground of some of my unfinished (and/or only exists on tumblr) Mighty Max stuff. I just want it all somewhere other than ye hellsite, you know?





	1. Eris at Rangoon...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Somebody had to save Norman and Virgil from that mess at Rangoon, right? And thus one of Virgil's sisters shows up . . . though she would be gone by the time he'd regain consciousness, and she probably swore the Guardian to secrecy.

The battle had not gone well, that much could be seen from the destroyed temple and rows of burning homes in the background, but a giant of a human was still attempting to subdue the deathstalker by wrestling it to the ground, of all things. That didn’t go well either, with the engineered beast roaring in defiance, and then unloading another beam breath attack on the warrior who dared using such primitive tactics. Norman went flying into the remains of a temple wall from the blast, impacting hard and then sliding limply to the ground. He tried once to get back up, to try and keep the thing from doing any more damage or from turning around to go eat Virgil (even with the Lemurian’s failed plan from earlier), but the viking simply didn’t have the strength left.

Norman braced himself for the inevitable, only to see the deathstalker recoil when an arrow from on high slammed into its back. Two more arrows joined the first one, causing the monster to screech in pain and then turn to face its new opponent.

“Tch, who woke this thing up? As useful as it might be to tame it, its programming is obviously corrupted if it tried to eat my brother.” There was a sigh from the Lemurian in forest green robes standing on a pile of rubble that had once been a building. She kept her bow pointed at the beast, an arrow already notched and ready. “Oh well, another day, another of Lemuria’s mistakes to put down…”

She let the arrow fly, jumping down from her perch in time to avoid the answering beam salvo from the deathstalker. Knowing she was going to have to get closer if she wanted to actually kill the thing, the fowl slung her bow onto her back and retrieved a handful of throwing needles from a hidden pocket in her robes. She whipped a few at the deathstalker as she ran past it to avoid a claw swipe, hoping the poison within them would help lower the thing’s energy level even further than it already was.


	2. A bridge crossed... or maybe burnt to the ground?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Was meant to be a tag for There Are Bridges You Cross, but I lost interest towards the end...

It honestly had no right to be so warm at Lemuria’s main port this far into the cold season, especially given how low the sun was currently dipping. Still, the female standing on the docks paid it no mind other than enjoying the warm wind going through her feathers. That was about the only enjoyable thing about this day, given the ship she was standing watch over out in the dock in front of her. Its owner would likely not be stupid enough to unleash any of his ‘pets’ from there to raise havoc just yet, but it never hurt to be prepared.

Serabi felt his approach long before she heard the first footfall on the dock, the dark nature of the mana he used lying heavily upon the leylines in the area. He saw no reason to mask his power, and in fact enjoyed startling people who were sensitive to it. She, on the other hand, didn’t really like spooking civilians and so when not in all out battle, usually kept her power hidden quite well.

At that moment, though? Serabi dropped every last restraint she kept up, wanting to make sure the one returning to his ship would know damn well just what was waiting for him. She felt a few shocked stares center on her from the other Lemurians working the docks, but that feeling swiftly faded as they resumed focusing on their work. There was the potential for a fight, of course, but their kind all had some of the seer in them; this would be a peaceful encounter, even if a somewhat heated one.

There was a creak in the boards behind her, but Serabi didn’t even turn around to greet her adversary. “I don’t know why you bothered… you know how the Elders have him wrapped around their little fingers. The 'yes’ you wanted had no potential to exist.” A faint sound of amusement emerged from her then, though she knew her audience of one wouldn’t appreciate what she had to say next. “Hmm, maybe there is some sentimentality left in that black heart of yours after all?”

The one who would be later known as Skullmaster scowled at her words, initially about to respond in contempt, though the scowl settled into a smug smirk. “He nearly joined my cause. I find it quaint how you continue to delude yourself as to your brother’s purity.”

“Nearly only counts in children’s games…” At that, Serabi turned around, gold eyes narrowing just a bit. “And purity has nothing to do with it. Did Virgil ever tell you of what it is like for our kind, when we first meet someone? In that moment we have a feeling for all of the potential that person may have, good or bad; but it is up to us to decide whether or not our interacting with them will change the world for the better.”

There was a bit of a sigh from the Lemurian then, though whether it was at this whole situation or her soft-hearted brother was up to debate. “Perhaps Virgil thought he could steer you onto a less destructive path, but, well, here we are. The rumors that fly from one end of the empire to the other always have at least one grain of truth to them, after all…”

A faint snarl emerged from the much taller being, his patience beginning to fray just a bit. “Serabi. Why are you here? To lecture me? To stop me?”

At this Serabi put one hand up and fanned the air, as if to push away the accusations. “For the former, pfft, we both know lecturing doesn’t work. And the latter? If I did not have to deal with the repercussions, I would gladly crush you right here … there is the little problem of several of the Elders’ watchdogs in the vicinity.” Her next words were a bit louder, calling out to the general area. “Yes, I know you’re here, ladies … did any of them bother telling you just how outclassed you are?”


	3. Maybe a few hours after Serabi shows herself...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This was probably supposed to be part of a longer fic introducing this OC, Serabi, Virgil's older sister . . . sibling tensions be high, yo~

Max still wasn’t quite sure what he was supposed to do in this rather tense situation he’d found himself caught in the middle of, and they hadn’t even faced the threat they were supposed to handle yet. No, right then he found himself staring daggers into the back of the female Lemurian that was currently leading the way down a forest path fraught with traps and illusions. The part of the boy that would defend Virgil to his last breath wanted so much to rail at Serabi, to let this new fowl know that he wouldn’t tolerate her treating his teacher that way, but something made him keep his mouth shut for once.

First of all, Max wasn’t sure it was his place to interfere, given the two Lemurians were close family. He thought Virgil was the last, really, and his mentor hadn’t told him otherwise. When Serabi introduced herself as a sister, the kid was happy for his friend; he wouldn’t have to be the only one left on a planet full of humans anymore. Things had certainly seemed they would go well, regardless of Virgil fainting when the mage revealed herself.

Sometimes free will could be just as nasty as the other parts of destiny, however, and Virgil pulled away from his sister the moment he came to. It was that instant where things promptly started going to hell; Serabi reciprocated her brother’s chilly attitude in kind, though her version of the cold shoulder seemed to be adorned with jagged shards of ice. She declared they would require her assistance with the latest threat to Earth whether they wanted it or not, then turned on her heel and started leading the way. That was how they ended up where they were now, and even as much as Max wanted to help, at least part of this tension was Virgil’s fault. With the amount of times his mentor had told him he should fix his own mistakes, letting the ancient fowl figure this out himself almost seemed fair play.

Virgil wasn’t so great with emotions, though… On that thought, Max decided he probably would help, but only if it looked like the two Lemurians were at an impasse.

***

Meanwhile, Virgil was walking along at his typical place at Max’s side, silently fuming. The shock of Serabi’s reappearance had worn off in about the time it took to recover from his brief fainting spell, the outrage just long enough to pull away from her indignantly and not even think about an apology. An accurate description of the emotions that currently ruled him might be ‘seething bitterness’? In any case, he walked along, maybe a bit stiffly at points as he was trying to keep his anger in check.

Serabi had obviously survived the fall of Lemuria, despite the fact she was in a losing battle with Skullmaster at the time. She was only succeeding at holding the dark lord off, to cover Virgil’s escape. And yet, even in the midst of that losing battle, she still managed to look back at her brother, a promise that they would see each other again the only thing that got him moving through the portal to safety.

If she survived that battle, lived for all that time in between, then why hadn’t she kept that promise? A small voice in his mind, probably some aspect of his conscience, tried to remind him that she technically had kept it. That voice was promptly silenced, the span of time too much to ignore. Five thousand years and Serabi couldn’t even randomly appear with a 'Hey, that bonehead didn’t manage to kill me; let’s go save the world together’?

He could have asked. He should have asked, but at that particular moment he was too angry to do much else but dwell upon all the times she was not there for him.

***

Serabi felt the glares upon her back, and could not care less. Well, that was the lie she tried to tell herself, anyway. She didn’t get it; why the hell was Virgil so angry, anyway? She at least expected him to be a little more glad she was alive! But oh no, apparently he hadn’t believed her when she said they’d see each other again…

Or maybe he had, only to be disappointed when she took so long to return?

Another trap almost catching her by surprise pulled her out of that thought, a hail of arrows hitting her barriers when she misjudged her footing and stepped on a pressure switch. That didn’t prove much more than an annoyance, but she’d had far too many of those in the past few hours. Oh look, totally ruining the enemy’s fun of watching them trying to get through this trap-infested forest was suddenly feeling like a very good idea.

The trio behind her barely got a warning as the runic circles appeared at Serabi’s feet, the unearthly glow from the runes intensifying as she poured mana into the spell she was about to unload. “Enough of this!” There weren’t any more words as she twirled her staff around, aimed the business end downrange and then let loose with one of her attack spells, this one looking like a fairly ordinary energy beam. Anything living within its path would merely be stunned, but all the traps would end up utterly destroyed.

There was a faint sigh from the mage as she put her staff back in the sling across her back. “There, this should be a clear path all the way to that oni stronghold. They know we’re coming now, but considering how heavily trapped this route was, they already knew _that_ anyway. Onwards to destiny, I suppose?”

Again she took the lead, though it was only a somewhat pointed glance from Norman that got Max and Virgil to follow along.


	4. In which there is a swimming Lemurian...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> LOL, let's just say some talking birds actually can swim? They're also good at trolling...

“You have a pool, Max? And it’s such a hot day too, how convenient…”

Without much fanfare other than a smirk, Serabi extracted herself from her robe, tossed it at Virgil, and then dove right in the pool. She took a moment to get used to the water temperature and started swimming in lazy circles, all while wearing nothing but the feathers on her hide.

To say Virgil was caught somewhere between unamused and flustered was a slight understatement, and he’d instantly looked away when he realized just what his sister was about to do. “S-Serabi, you cannot just…”

“I can’t just what?” There was a slight laugh to the question, as Serabi knew exactly why Virgil had a problem. It was more entertaining to play dumb, especially when doing that would only annoy him more.

The scholar would’ve glared, if he wasn’t so busy focusing on the blue robe he held. “You’re being indecent around the Mighty One, now get out of there and put your robes back on–” He had to stop short as he ducked to avoid a spray of water she directed at him with her magic.

Having shut Virgil up, at least temporarily, Serabi swam a bit closer to where Max was standing at the side of the pool. She eyed him in amusement. “You don’t mind, do you, Max?”

Suddenly put on the spot, but wanting to join in on the teasing, the boy shrugged. “If you’ve seen one set of Lemurian tailfeathers, you’ve seen them all, I guess. Come on, Virg, it’s not like she’s actually naked.”

At this point, Virgil had clearly switched to ‘I am ignoring you because you are annoying’ mode, as he was pointedly not paying attention to either of them and focusing more on the contents of Serabi’s robes. There were just as many hidden pockets in her robes as there were in his own, and considering she hadn’t wanted to get them wet, it was only a matter of time before he hit paydirt. After a bit of searching, he found a slim silver device with a touchscreen, with a set of earbuds wrapped around it. It was powered off, but that was fixed easily enough. A new problem presented itself in the form of a passcode screen, however.

Max noticed what his mentor was doing fairly quickly, and stepped closer to watch. “Is that an iPod touch? Wonder what she has on it?”

Serabi started paying attention the moment Max mentioned an ipod, swimming over to the edge of the pool to glare at Virgil. “It’s not very nice to go through your big sister’s things. You’re never going to get into it, though–” Then there was the sound of the 'unlock’ slider going across the screen. “Oh, you little hacker! I don’t know why you bothered; there’s nothing interesting in there.”

Somehow, someway, Virgil managed to find the most cutesy piece of shoujo anime related jpop that existed on that iPod and played it so Max could hear.

The kid couldn’t help but snicker. “Wow, Serabi, I’m getting cavities just listening to that! So, you want me to buy you a pink case for that thing?”

There was a groan from the Lemurian in the pool, though that only covered her plotting sweet revenge to be acted upon at a later date…


	5. Maybe second encounter with Eris?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is actually the first thing I wrote with Eris in it, I think... they'd probably ran into her before this point, and randomly shows up again here to help them out.

“… Are you three sure you want to go in there? There might be a deathstalker loose in there, considering this was where we built them.”

The Mighty One, the Guardian, and one Lemurian fowl looked in the direction the voice came from, only to find another Lemurian regarding them with a somewhat bored look on her face. She was sitting on the remains of a ruined wall, seeming to pay a bit more attention to the dagger she was toying with rather than the trio before her. Eris hadn’t been sitting there when they arrived, likely emerging from a hiding spot the moment they were occupied with opening the facility door.

Max couldn’t help but sigh. “Oh great, you again … and I guess we do want to go in there, but this stupid door won’t open. It didn’t respond to the Cap, or Normy trying his best to break it down.” At that he glanced at Virgil, one eyebrow raising slightly. “And you’re sure there’s no special Lemurian mumbo-jumbo you can do to that to get it open?”

There was a faint indignant snort from Virgil. “The correct term is magic, and yes, I am certain.”

That comment was what got the other Lemurian to jump from her perch and step closer. “Oh, don’t play innocent; you know how to open that door. You just don’t want to … always were too stubborn to admit you faint at the sight of your own blood.” Cue the somewhat embarrassed squawk, but Eris ignored it and wandered over to the door. “I’m not sure if they ever gave you the right clearances for this place anyway, so I’ll handle it.”

From there, getting into the ruin was painfully simple. Eris merely pricked her left index finger with the tip of her dagger, and when there was enough blood for the sigil on the door to detect, she swiped it across its surface. In the next few seconds there was the rumble of ancient mechanisms and the door slid open. With that she stepped aside, to allow the others to pass. “After you, boys; this is a job for the Mighty One, after all…”


	6. Precious Treasure

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And this one is a tag for I Am No Longer the Expeditor of Your Dream . . . this one got kinda dark.

“Ugh, that woman needs to clean out her closets; there are entirely too many artifacts with latent magic in that house. I almost lost my stealth spell twice!”

“Hmm, it might be useful to raid those closets later. But did you see them go through the portal in the basement, Eris?”

“Yes, all three of them. Serabi, I don’t like this … you’re sure we couldn’t go with them this time? They could have used our skills, even if it wasn’t to fight Skullmaster himself.”

Serabi closed her eyes, considering for a moment, before glancing to her younger sister again. “If it’s just the three of them, there are only a handful of ways this can go. Our interference at this point would unbalance things a bit too much to keep it to those possibilities. Now, if we want to see for ourselves which direction it goes, we’ll need to get to the other portal in the Outback within the next day… let’s get going.”

The two female Lemurians left the Mighty One’s street shortly afterward with little fanfare, other than once again vanishing under a stealth spell.

——-

In the end, when only two emerged from the portal when she expected four, the rage that gripped Serabi’s heart was the sort that could tear worlds asunder.

“You lost him?! Bah, of course you lost him; leave it to a human child to be so godsdamned _weak_. Fortunately for you, there is a way to correct this, so long as I let you live … but I do not have to be nice about it.”

The sight of bristling feathers and a wild gaze would’ve been comical if it was Virgil. This other Lemurian— who looked very much like him aside from being female— on this one there was an edge, there was a threat to the Mighty One. Norman tried his best to move between her and Max, but was woefully too late.

“Eris? Take care of him, would you?”

The only answer was the hail of throwing needles that suddenly rushed at the Guardian, most serving as distraction while the ones targeted at pressure points struck home. In an instant, the giant of a Viking fell to the ground like a sack of bricks, still breathing but utterly unable to move. Eris soon dispersed her stealth spell, stepping close to Norman to say just one thing. “Sorry about this…”

With one problem taken care of, Serabi focused on Max. “Now then, it’s simple enough to make another Crystal of Souls, likewise simple enough to fill one. There are plenty of cults willing to give everything for the sake of ‘eternal life’ after all … humans are such fools. After that, well, it’s off to Stonehenge … and I swear this to you, we are going to go through this whole song and dance as many times as it takes for you to get it right! Be thankful you’re probably not going to remember this particular failure…”

Max had the thought to run, but again it was far too late, only noticing the sleep spell because he was quickly growing drowsy. Soon enough he fell to the ground as well, consciousness fading as he listened to two sets of taloned feet step ever closer to him.


End file.
